The Youthful Match Queen
by LucyCrewe11
Summary: A Post last battle Susanfic take on "The little match girl". On the last day of the year 1949, Susan Pevensie is left with no choice but to spend the night in the streets because she was unable to sell any matches.


**AN: alright, so I was sitting in the bookstore looking through large fairytale books and I came across, "the little match girl". I'd read it before, of course, but I re-read it and something in my head went, "Ding!" and I got the idea for this fic. It roughly follows the plot of H.C. Anderson's "The little match girl" but it's about Susan Pevensie. It's a one-shot. **

It was the last night of the old year; when the sun rose in the morning, new year's eve would be ended and the new year would begin. The current year, the one fading away, was 1949.

Snow fell thickly and dark patches of ice were almost impossible to avoid. Most people were bundled up in their warm houses with their glorious fireplaces and scrumptious banquets to eat. But there were a few poor souls who still wandered the cold London street. Most of these homeless people were not very nice to look at, having been poor since their day of birth leaving them with bad teeth and ugly pinched, starved, faces. One young woman was very different from the others however and stood out the way a glittering silver mirror would stand out from piles of rust.

She was beautiful in appearance and graceful-looking in spite of the messy state she was in. Her long black hair was almost long enough to reach her feet and fell about her lovely pale form in a very becoming way, making one think almost immediately of a great royal queen. Her feet were bare but only because she had only old heels she had owned once when she wasn't quite so poor as she was now and they had given her terrible blisters to be walking in. One of them had broken when she was crossing the street earlier, anyway.

Her pockets were full of packets of matches which she was trying to sell for a small profit. She had once lived in a nice house with a kind family. She had had a father, a mother, an elder brother, a younger brother, and a little sister who was always considered the baby of the family no matter how old she got. They had all died in a terrible railway accident towards the beginning of the year. She had been left with nothing but debt to pay. She had been terribly unwise with saving her own money before the accident blowing it on nylons and lipsticks to make herself look good in order to be invited to this or that party. Oh, how silly it all seemed now.

There was no where for her to go now. She dared not go back to the little apartment room she and another girl pooled their money together to rent because her roommate was sure to be angry that she hadn't sold any matches that day.

"How are you planning on paying for your half of the room this month?" she was sure to demand with her hands on her hips and her eyes flashing with resentment. "I wont pay for your keep!"

Really though, what did it matter if she couldn't go back there? It was nearly as cold as the street anyway now that the only heater had broken and the landlord refused to fix it unless they promised to pay him a lot of money, money they just didn't have.

Her whole body shaking from the chilly winter air, Susan-for that was the name of the young woman selling matches-dashed across a narrow street into a ebony, coal-stained, alleyway. The stray dogs would probably come and chase her away in the morning but for now they were huddled up on the nearby doorsteps of any sympathetic soul who might throw them a scrap or two of supper, and Susan knew she could have dark little nook to herself at least for a few hours.

If only it were just a little warmer. Resting her head against one of the nearest brick walls, she felt colder than ever. She turned and looked up at the sky and saw a shooting star blaze across it. In her mind, it seemed to take the shape of a train burning and flaming as it headed for a crash. She closed her eyes tightly and whimpered inwardly; she didn't like that.

Now Susan happened to look down at one of the boxes of matches sticking out of the pocket of her slightly tattered dress. She needed them so she could try to make a little money tomorrow but what harm could lighting just one do? How delightfully warm it would be! Her numb hands struggled to lift the top of the box and pull out a single match. Then she struck it against the wall and it burned a lovely little flame.

Glancing at where the light fell, Susan saw what must have been a vision for it couldn't be real. The wall the light was hitting seemed as transparent as a plain crystal vase and it was as if she was looking into the room. But it wasn't a room that would have been in any house in London. It seemed to be a castle dinning hall. A fantastic banquet was spread out on the great cherry wood table.

There were the most peculiar looking courtiers some only barely seeming human in appearance. The only human present was a king who sat at the head of the table making a speech. Susan let out a gasp when she saw his face. She knew him! It was Caspian. In another world and another time she had been very fond of him once. He had liked her also. Of course there was little doubt that he had long forgotten her now, moving her match a little to the left she saw a yellow-haired maiden in a glittering blue gown sitting next to him. She wasn't exactly human-she was a star's daughter-but she was close enough that she made a suitable wife for him. For a moment Susan found herself wildly wishing she could trade places with the beautiful star-woman. But before she could get very upset and over-run with longing, the match went out and it was as if none of it had ever been there at all.

"I'm still cold." Susan mumbled to herself. She took out another match. "Just one more." She hesitated for a moment, she wasn't sure she wanted to see Caspian again. She wanted to forget about him. In the end, she was too chilly to bother with such absurdity. She struck another match against the wall.

This time, she saw a man and a woman sitting together over looking a beautiful ocean facing the east. It was her own parents. Oh how she had missed them! Tears streamed down her face and one landed on the match, putting it out.

"Bother!" Susan groaned, taking out another match to replace it. When it was lit, she saw a pretty, fair-haired, young maiden standing on a green hill top beside a man who was half-goat, a faun.

"Lucy!" Susan cried out; for Lucy was the name of her youngest sister. "Dear little Lu!" She felt tears prick her eyes again but made sure this time to keep them well away from the match. "Mr. Tumnus?" She tried weakly, remembering the name of the faun from another world and time. A place her siblings always called, Narnia. A place she always tossed her head back at the mention of. Oh, how dreadful she felt now, thinking back on her words and actions! With a short splutter, the match went out and Lucy and her faun friend were gone.

Susan broke into fit of weeping and pulled her knees close to her face so she could cry into them. After she had cried herself out and had no more tears left in her, she quietly glanced at the matches once more. She'd wasted enough of them already but she couldn't resist. She lit a fresh one. This one showed a young light-haired, deep chested, king sitting in a throne room playing chess with a large mouse who had a gold-band with a red feather on his head. She knew this king at once to be her eldest brother.

"Peter, I'm sorry for how beastly I was towards you and Lu." She pleaded with the vision of her brother as if she thought she might really be heard. "Please don't be cross with me anymore. I know you've long given up on me your other sister, the one who wasn't strong enough. But have you really forgotten me? You seem so peaceful just like little Lucy. Oh, I know you love her better than me and don't mind that I'm not where ever you are now! All the same, don't you miss me even a little?"

A sudden winter breeze blew out that match and Peter was gone. Now more alone and broken hearted than ever, Susan decided that the next match would be the last one. After that she would lay down on the cold dirty ground and take whatever fate should deal her next. But she would first have one last moment of warmth and hope, even if it was as vain as chasing after the wind.

This last match seemed to Susan to be the brightest of them all. It had a sparkling brilliance about it and she glanced at it with her mouth hanging slightly open. She closed it again when she saw what the light had brought to her this time. It was her favorite sibling of all, her younger brother, Edmund. She loved all her siblings dearly but it was Edmund whom she felt understood her the best. Peter and Lucy were flawless in their never-ending golden perfection and could never understand her dark mind the way Edmund could. He always seemed to know what she was thinking and what she needed.

She remembered so clearly the day he was born; the wailing, screaming child so different from the delightful disposition of Peter-and later, Lucy. The little boy Mum let her hold more than once in spite of her tender young age, because he wouldn't stop crying any other way.

He was the only one who hadn't given up on her. On the day of the train crash when the others told him it was of no use and would only waste their time, Edmund came to talk to her. He was pleading with her to believe in Narnia and in Aslan the great Lion who ruled over it. He begged her to at the very least join them in their efforts to help the land they had once ruled. But she paid him no heed until at last there was nothing left for him to do but kiss her goodbye on the cheek and go away so he didn't miss his train.

"Ed!" Susan cried out, louder than she had for the other two.

There was something very different about this vision from the others. In the other ones it seemed as if the things she saw, could not see her looking at them. Now though, Edmund seemed to hear her calling him and looked this way and that until, as impossible as it seemed, their eyes met.

She realized now that he wasn't the little boy she saw behind her closed eyelids when she couldn't sleep at night, but rather a great king like her other brother and Caspian. He wore a cap of silver upon his head and was dressed in a tunic of azure and gold and scarlet. He continued to stare back at her wordlessly unmoving until the little match began to sputter. He blinked and started to fade away.

"No!" Shouted Susan desperately. "No, you mustn't leave me! Everything and everyone else has gone away with the match; but you little brother, you wont forsake me too, will you?" She was terrified that he would go away just like everything else she had seen that night. Quickly she struck all of the remaining matches in the open packet and held them up. She looked at her brother though the burning flames and the blurring tears that had returned to her eyes. Some of the matches slipped and scorched her delicate lily-white fingers but she ignored the pain unwilling to break the eye-contact with Edmund.

Suddenly Susan thought she heard the roar of a Lion echoing through the alleyway and it seemed that the flames themselves took the shake of an open Lion's mouth before flickering out.

He was gone. Her dear little brother was gone forever now. She would never see him again. She had lost him along with anything else that had been worth living for in the life she'd once led. She collapsed sprawled out on the ground, her head in a wet snow patch but found to her amazement, just as her eyes were starting to close, that she was eye-to-eye with a pair of boots. Someone was standing in front of her. Her eyes rolled up and she saw that it was Edmund himself standing before her in the dark alleyway.

"Susan!" He exclaimed, bending down to her level.

"Edmund, is it really you?" Susan managed to murmur, finding that she felt very weak and feverish all of a sudden. She couldn't even lift her head off the pavement.

"Poor Su." Edmund said, gently placing his arms under her so that he could pick her up.

"Where are you taking me?" Susan whispered, although she didn't really care. She was very dizzy and had to put her arms around his neck so she wouldn't tumble out of his grip.

"We're going home, Susan." Edmund told her. "Everyone is waiting for us there."

"Will Aslan be there?" Susan asked, in a chocked up voice.

"Yes." Edmund said.

"Good." Susan managed a light smile.

"Is that all you wanted to know?" Edmund asked nervously. "Would you rather stay here in England?"

"Isn't any place where I can be with you and Aslan far better than a lonely life in England? In the name of the Lion, please take me there." Susan croaked, resting her head on her little brother's shoulder because she felt weaker than ever and trying to hold it up made it ache terribly.

Edmund spread the cloak that he wore on his shoulders, over his older sister so that she could be a little warmer. She closed her eyes as the darkness of the cloak fell upon her.

When she opened her eyes again and peeled the cloak away from her face, she found she was laying down on a grassy bank in Aslan's country. The sun was rising and she found it truly was a new year.

Back in England that morning, a young woman was found in an alleyway with burnt matches in her lap. She had a smile on her face as if she was the happiest person in all of the world.

"She was trying to warm herself, poor dear." One of the people who found her said.

"Such a shame." Another sighed. "She was so pretty."

They thought it a shame only because they did not know that she had not truly died as it appeared in their world but was living in bliss knowing that when all else failed, her little brother would always be there to rescue her.

**AN: So? Whatja think? Tell me! Please review!**


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